USF Faces No. 23 Mississippi State in Home Opener
TAMPA, Jan. 30, 2020 – USF men's tennis is in home territory for the first time in five matches. The Bulls will play No. 23 Mississippi State at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. before traveling to New York City for No. 13 Columbia, Sunday at 1 p.m.
South Florida went 10-2 at home last season only falling to No. 4 Virginia and No. 32 UCF. Men's tennis is undefeated in home openers since 2006 including a win against
No. 16 Mississippi State, 4-2, in 2017.
USF posts a 4-1 or better record for the first time in five seasons, thanks to dominating wins against FGCU, ETSU, FAU and Fresno State. The Bulls have 20-out-of-26 singles wins and three undefeated singles contenders: No. 121
Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) on court one,
Ivan Yatsuk (Minsk, Belarus) on five and
Rithvik Bollipalli (Hyderabad, India) on six.
Yatsuk joins
Sergio Gomez Montesa (Valencia, Spain) to make a strong doubles duo, leading the Bulls with four doubles wins. The sophomore tandem has secured two out of South Florida's four doubles point wins.
Scouting Mississippi State
No. 23 Mississippi State heads to Tampa Bay tomorrow, led by Matt Roberts in his fifth season as head coach. Roberts led the team to a 24-4 record in 2019, including an SEC Championship victory against Tennessee and an NCAA Round of 16 appearance.
Mississippi State (5-2) is currently winless on the road, falling to Florida State in Tallahassee, 5-2, earlier this month. The Bulldogs' recent upset against No. 22 Oklahoma helped them crack the ITA's Top 25.
No. 15 Giovanni Oradini works the top court for Mississippi State, posting a 4-2 record from the spot this season. Oradini joins No. 101 Davide Tortura as the Bulldogs' only ranked contenders. Junior Florian Braska leads the team in singles wins, 5-1, primarily from court No. 2. Broska joins Nicolas Ocana as the top doubles tandem posting a 3-1 record this year.
The Bulldogs lead the overall series 5-2 against the Bulls with their most recent win in Starksville, Miss. last February, 6-1.
Scouting Columbia
No. 13 Columbia will host USF in New York City Sunday afternoon led by former assistant coach and fellow Lion Howard Endelman. Endelman commands the Lions to a 2-0 record in his first year at the helm.
The Lions have had a strong start to 2020, posting wins against ranked opponents: No. 14 Oklahoma State and No. 16 Tennessee. Columbia finished 2019, 19-4, with a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals.
Columbia is home to three ranked singles players: No. 6 Jack Lin, No. 73 Jackie Tang, and No. 79 Alex Kotzen. Kotzen ties junior Austen Huang for the most singles wins with two. Tang and Lin form the No. 3 doubles team in the nation, recently upsetting the No. 1 tandem Matej Vocel and Dominik Kellovsky of Oklahoma State.
The Lions top the Bulls in overall contention, 5-0, dating back to 1971. These two teams haven't faced off since 1989, where the Lions left victorious, 5-4.
Quotable
Head coach Ashley Fisher on a competitive weekend ahead…
"We are excited to compete against some quality competition this weekend. We make every match about us in terms of preparing the same way. We will give our best and then apply what happened in order to continue growing and improving. The guys' understanding of what it means to compete and represent USF grows with each battle and we are expecting a great competitive performance from ourselves across the board this weekend
."
About Men's Tennis
Be sure to follow USF men's tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. Head coach Ashley Fisher will begin his fourth year at the helm of the program for the 2019 season after leading the Bulls to their fifth American Conference Championship title.
– #GoBulls –
